Blame Trump, not Whitmer, on COVID

On Sept. 7, USA TODAY published a column headlined “My patients suffered because of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s illegal lockdown,” by Jordan Warnsholz, a physician assistant from Michigan.

His column was hyperpartisan and willfully misleading.

In it, Warnsholz criticized Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for using executive powers, allowed under law, to keep Michiganders safe during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Like President Donald Trump, Warnsholz tries to blame Whitmer’s stay-athome orders for patients’ suffering.

But the blame belongs on the Trump administration, which failed to implement a national strategy, and, as we heard recently in taped interviews, warn Americans about the severity of this coronavirus — even though they knew very well how dangerous the virus was.

Warnsholz’s misguided criticism ignores the fact that hospital systems had plans in place precisely to ensure that patients with chronic conditions didn’t fall through the cracks. If any failed, that’s the fault of the health care system, not the government.

Warnsholz accused Whitmer of “a shocking ignorance of how medicine works,” but in sharing his patients’ stories, outed himself as the ignorant one.

His patients’ examples are ones of medical negligence, not gubernatorial overreach. One doesn’t require a medical degree to understand that treating diabetes is an “essential” service and wasn’t restricted by Whitmer’s measures.

Let’s be clear: Warnsholz’s patient’s death represents a failure of the medical community.

As a family physician, my practice has remained open since the onset of the pandemic. Keeping people with chronic medical and psychiatric conditions stable and out of the hospital limited their exposure and preserved resources for COVID patients.

There was no ambiguity that it was an essential service. At least, there shouldn’t have been. If I were Warnsholz, or the physician overseeing him, I’d be less concerned about suing the governor and more concerned about patients suing me.